The Design of the Cosmos Part 5: The Lunar Anthropic Principle / Intro to Our Solar System

I used to ask my daughter around the age of 1 or so, "Who made the moon?" She would answer, "God!" (I taught her well) This was before I learned just how fined tuned the moon must be for human life to be possible here on Earth.

Did you know that without the precise size and location of the moon, life on Earth would not be possible? For instance, science has discovered that the moon serves many purposes to support life on Earth. One such example is that it serves to stabilize the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis. Get this: If the moon's mass were only 2 percent larger (increase the radius of the moon by just 7 miles), then the tug of the enlarged moon's gravity would significantly pull the Earth's axial tilt out of balance (it's tilt is currently stable at a 23 degree angle) causing catastrophic climactic changes (decreases in rainfall and increases in life threatening temperature changes). (Al Gore eat your heart out)

However, if the mass of the moon were just 2 percent less (decrease the radius of the moon by just 7 miles) then the moon's gravity would be too weak to put brakes on the Earth's rotation rate, which in turn would mean that the Earth would rotate in just a few hours, instead of 24. The results of a faster rotation rate of the Earth would also be catastrophic for life, resulting in overwhelmingly frequent hurricanes and tornadoes, and with longer durations. While it's true that a slightly less massive moon would eventually slow the Earth's rotation rate, the time it would take would be considerably longer than the 4.5 billion year time window in which our Sun requires to enter into it's most stable burning phase, (which begins when the Sun is about 4.5 billion years old - which is right now in human existence) and this would mean that the Sun's burning phase would be unstable, also making life impossible on Earth.

So, what do you think? Do you think the moon's size and location as beneficial to life on Earth is just a lucky, random chance event or coincidence? Or, is it more plausible to think that an intelligent Agent (God) fine tuned it for our benefit? Before you answer, consider the way that scientists now believe how the moon was formed in the first place.

According to the latest scientific theory called the Giant Impact Hypothesis, the moon was formed from a just right mars sized object which struck the young Earth at just the right velocity and at just the right angle, crashing into the Earth and blowing away the thick early Earth atmosphere (see verse 9 of Job 38 which describes the very thick early Earth atmosphere, so thick that from the vantage point of an observer on the surface of the Earth, the observer would experience darkness) and replacing it with an atmosphere thin enough for light to pass through (see Genesis 1 verses 2 and 3 where the once thick atmosphere of the Earth is changed to allow for the first time light to reach the surface - note the frame of reference is of that of an observer on the Earth's surface). The resulting debris field from the impact coalesced to form the moon. Here's a section from Hugh Ross's book, "Creation As Science": (page 111)

"Most of the time, a major crash constitutes a catastrophe. But one gigantic collision proved just the opposite. When primordial Earth was only 30 to 50 million years old, a planet between 11 and 14 percent the mass of Earth (for comparison's sake, Mars = 0.107 Earth masses) smashed into Earth at a 45 degree angle. The speed of the planet upon impact was surprisingly slow (less than 4 kilometers per second). This astonishing crash:

• Replaced Earth's thick, suffocating atmosphere with one thin enough (about 100 times thinner) for light to pass through. The new atmosphere had the just right chemical composition to foster life's existence.
• Boosted the mass and density of the Earth just enough to allow Earth's gravity to retain a large, but not too large, quantity of water vapor for billions of years.
• Raised the amount of iron in Earth's core closer to the level needed to provide Earth with a strong and enduring magnetic field. This magnetic field shield's life from deadly cosmic rays and solar X-rays.
• Delivered to Earth's core and mantle quantities of iron and other associated elements in the just right ratios to produce sufficiently long lasting, continent building plate tectonics. (Earth began without any continents) Plate tectonics also play a crucial role in compensating for the Sun's increasing brightness so that life can be sustained on Earth for billions of years.
• Increased the iron content of Earth's crust in a way that permits a huge abundance of ocean life that in turn supports advanced land life. (see Genesis 1:20)
• Played a major role in salting Earth's interior with an abundance of long lasting radioisotopes, the heat from which drives most of the Earth's tectonic activity and volcanism.
• Gradually slowed Earth's rotation rate so that a wide variety of lower life forms could survive long enough to provide the resources needed for the existence of advanced life forms. This slowing was also directly significant to advanced life, which cannot survive the high wind velocities of a more rapid rotation rate. (due to the creation of Earth's moon as a result of the impact)
• Stabilized the tilt of Earth's rotation axis, protecting the planet from rapid and extreme climatic variations." (due to the creation of Earth's moon as a result of the impact)

He goes on to state that each of these beneficial results of the impact made conditions for the possibility of advanced life far more favorable.

Now, with all of that said, now I want you to ask yourself the same question as before. Was the formation and fine tuning of the moon to make life on Earth possible just a product of random chance, coincidence, or the result of carefully orchestrated engineering by an incredibly intelligent, powerful, Agent?

If you answered an intelligent Agent, what if I could show you that the Bible's various creation accounts match the most recent scientific accounts of the creation of the universe, Earth, moon and life on Earth? Wouldn't that mean that the Bible is true and trustworthy?

I love in Genesis 1 and Job 38, the exact conditions of the early Earth are described in detail and match what science has discovered some 3000 years later. See the references for yourself above.

Well, I'm out of time - I was going to introduce you to the Solar System today but I'll save that for next time.

Until then, have a great and Merry Christmas!

Cheers

Tom

The Design of the Cosmos Part 4: The Anthropic Principle Inequality

To plan the average wedding, it takes usually over one year of preparation to get ready for an event that lasts a very short length of time by comparison. Often, there is also a great amount of money spent for an event that lasts usually less than 5 hours. But no one would consider such an effort of planning, coordinating, and preparation and expense a waste. Why? It's because the wedding ceremony is of such a high purpose both for those getting married, and for the ones who love those who are getting married.

It's the same way with the universe and human life on planet Earth. Let me explain. Brandon Carter, a British mathematician, in 1983 introduced what he termed the "anthropic principle inequality" to the scientific community. His idea was that a minimum of several billion years or so is required to prepare a place for advanced life, yet that advanced life can only exist for a few million years, an obvious inequality. Here's what Hugh Ross has to say about this inequality from page 113 of his book, "Why the Universe is the Way it is?"

"Carter took note of the fact that several billion years is the minimum time required for the existence of the human race or a similarly advanced species. Yet, according to his calculations, the maximum time window in which the cosmos can possibly sustain such a species amounts to less than a few million years. In other words, it took a very long time to prepare the universe to sustain humans for a relatively short time."

Since Carter's discovery in 1983, Physicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler in 1986 showed that the amount of time that an advanced civilization can be sustained is much, much less. Dr. Ross writes;

"They estimated that global human civilization - something more than just a few low-population groups existing in one or two regions using Stone Age - type tools - could last no more than 41,000 years. According to their calculations, this limit would apply to any physical intelligent species with a sophisticated global civilization living anywhere in the universe."

Here are some of the characteristics of the universe which Barrow and Tipler noted in their work which all contribute to this short duration for the existence and survival of the human race or any advanced life:

• The laws of physics (especially the 2nd law of thermodynamics-the running down of energy in the universe to an eventual state of unconsciousness in the entirety of the universe, which includes life on Earth)
• The characteristics of the universe (especially the expansion rate or "dark energy" of the universe - which will increase at a faster and faster rate, with the cosmic expansion ultimately being so rapid that all intelligent life anywhere in the universe will lose the ability to draw adequate energy for work from the heat flow of the universe; thus all metabolic reactions will cease, and therefore all life will not exist anywhere in the universe.
• The properties of life (temporal and not eternal)
• The Earth's rotation rate slows (disturbing the delicate 24 hour period advanced life on Earth requires/increasing inhospitable environmental changes/atmospheric changes detrimental to life on Earth)
• Fossil fuel supplies (will run out eventually)
• Solar stability (solar flares and radiation will increase with respect to time as the Sun becomes less and less stable, making conditions on Earth inhospitable for life)
• Solar luminosity (the sun will continuously brighten to a point where human life cannot survive under such luminosities)
• Plate tectonics (plate tectonic activity will continuously decline, dramatically impacting environmental conditions on Earth)
• Declining birthrates
• Increasing genetic disorders
• Environmental catastrophes (either from mankind or from a nearby supernova or other cosmic disasters)
• Socio-political upheaval

Here is an incredible article you can read for yourself a more in depth survey of this topic. The article is called, "The Anthropic Principle: A Precise Plan for Humanity". What I find most fascinating is that in this article, Dr. Ross states that most probably, the maximum time left for the human race to exist in an advanced state is something less than 20,000 years. Since human beings have existed on this planet for approximately 50,000 years since they first "appeared" on Earth, and since science has measured the universe to be approximately 13.7 billion years old, that means that the maximum survival time for human beings is one millionth of the time it took to prepare the universe and Earth for we human beings to reach an advanced civilized state.

This amount of preparation and fine tuning requirements within the universe to support advanced human life suggests very powerfully of the high purpose that we human beings must have been gifted from the Creator, for the amount of the inequality between the time necessary in preparation for conditions to be just right for us to the maximum time we can possibly exist is extreme.

Here are some excellent Bible verses which support these scientific discoveries of the fact that the universe, Earth, and human life on Earth will someday come to an end:

Psalm 102:25-26 (New International Version)

²⁵ In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.

²⁶ They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them
and they will be discarded.

2 Peter 3:5-13 (New International Version)

⁵But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. ⁶By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. ⁷By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

¹¹Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.¹³But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Please don't despair, for if you accept Christ's work on the cross and resurrection as payment for your sins, you have no need to despair. For God will create an entirely new "heavens and earth" as stated in Revelation 21:

Revelation 21

The New Jerusalem

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

⁶He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

⁹One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." ¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹²It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. ¹⁶The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. ¹⁷He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

So, most of the evidence for a personal Creator and Savior of the universe is in. Your job is to evaluate the evidence, repent of your sin, and accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. If you do this, your salvation is certain, you have the gift of eternal life!

But don't take my word for it. Listen to the Apostle Paul:

Romans 3:23-30 (New International Version)

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

And one more, listen here:

Romans 6:23 (New International Version)

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So Jesus stands at the door of your heart and knocks - but He is a gentleman, and will not force himself upon you. He's waiting for you to open your heart, and if you do, He promises to come in and save you!!

We'll so much for my sermon! Please write to me if you have made a confession of faith - I can give you some advice as your start your journey of faith. If you live in the Capital region, I have a great church where you can begin. It's called Grace Fellowship of Latham. Go to the website to see what it's like at www.gracefellowship.com

Next time I plan on talking to you about the Lunar Anthropic Principle and the fine tuning of our Solar System to support life on Earth (but I've got to figure out a way to shorten the title!)

Cheers

Tom